Hugo Chavez is doing what iran's leadership did... Make friends with Russia so they're untouchable.
Chavez Goes Weapons Shopping in Russia Amid Regional Arms Race
By Matthew Walter
July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez heads to Moscow today to shop for tanks, air defense systems and other weaponry as Latin America's arms race quickens amid signs that his regional influence is waning.
Past Venezuelan arms purchases from Russia have strengthened ties with Moscow as its rivalry with the U.S. intensifies over President George W. Bush's plans for an Eastern Europe missile defense system and other issues. Chavez, 53, also plans to visit Belarus, a Russian ally that the U.S. considers a dictatorship.
Chavez ``regularly refers to us as an `empire,' opposes our initiatives in the Americas and seeks out our adversaries as friends and allies,'' Assistant U.S. Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon said July 17 in testimony to a congressional committee.
Chavez will order $2 billion worth of weapons, including Project 636 diesel subs, Mi-28 combat helicopters and airplanes made by Ilyushin Co., the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported May 12, without saying how it obtained the information.
``What Chavez likes to do is to shock, and this will create some shock in Washington,'' said Riordan Roett, a professor of Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Fighter Jets
Chavez, who plans to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, has bought more than $4.4 billion worth of Russian arms since 2003. He says the hardware, including jets and submarines, is needed to counter a military threat from the U.S. and its main regional ally, Colombia.
Russia last year announced plans to build two factories to make Kalashnikov assault rifles in Venezuela.
Russia has used Venezuela to diversify its arms-selling business beyond China and India, said Dmitry Vasiliev, an analyst at the Center for the Analysis of Strategies & Technologies, a Moscow-based defense research center. Venezuela was Russia's third-biggest arms customer last year, he said.
``Russia is trying to be good friends with Chavez because he is an ideal partner in arms trade,'' said Fyodor Lukyanov, an analyst at the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy in Moscow.
The Venezuelan president said this month he'll also discuss the creation of a joint development bank and an investment fund with Russia.
